Myanmar workers file Bt46m claim against Betagro over Lop Buri supplier

The lawsuit was filed at Region 1 Labour Court in Saraburi. 

The poultry farm was a supplier for Betagro. On August 1, Lop Buri’s Department of Labour Protection and Welfare ordered the farm to pay compensation worth Bt1.7 million to the workers. 

The workers filed the lawsuit, as they were not content with the payout figure. 

They allege they suffered abuses at the farm for five years, including below-market wages and no payment for overtime. They also allege deductions were illegally taken from their salaries, and they were threatened with further deductions and the confiscation of their personal identity documents. 

They also allege their movement was limited, that they were only allowed to leave the farm for two hours a week on an accompanied visit to a market.

In a statement by the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN), which assisted the workers for months, Betagro was named in the litigation because “it has failed to respond positively to both requests to ensure emergency accommodation and living support for the workers after they resigned from the farm in late June 2016”.

The MWRN also claimed the company failed to respond to requests that adequate compensation be paid to the workers.

Betagro suspended the contract with the poultry farm and insisted it had adhered to international labour standards.

MWRN said the director general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare had denied the severity of the alleged abuses, insisting it was just a labour dispute between workers and their employer and not a case of forced labour, human trafficking, overwork or unlawful document retention.

A petition with 45,285 signatures from international activists, gathered by a Walk Free campaign, was submitted at the same time to the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association. 

The petition called on the poultry association to encourage its member company, Betagro, to ensure the 14 Myanmar workers are paid compensation.

The petition also called on Betagro to investigate working conditions throughout its supply chain to ensure effective grievance mechanisms and no modern day slavery.

Betagro is one of the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association’s leading members, alongside Charoen Pokphand, GFPT, Cargill, BRF, Laemthong Poultry, Panus Poultry, Centago and Bangkok Ranch. 

Across the country, 7,917 poultry farms were registered with the Livestocks Development Department, along with 224 processing factories, which employ over 300,000 workers.